The leadership and top officials of the City of Johannesburg at the weekend made an undertaking to increase levels of accountability as far as service delivery and other important municipal-related issues were concerned.

The commitment was made at an extraordinary stakeholder engagement session in Sandton on Friday hosted by the City's high-level administrative team. Among the stakeholders at the meeting, where the 2011-2012 financial report was tabled, were representatives of the business fraternity.

“All facets of the city and its well-being are articulated in the Growth and Development 2040 (GDS 2040). We, as the City of Johannesburg, have four pillars with which to gauge our progress on a daily basis – which are economic growth, good governance, sustainable services and human and social development.

“We, as the political leadership of the city, are very confident that we have taken a solid stand for future success,” said Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance Clr Geoffrey Makhubo.

Makhubo was part of the city’s high-powered team consisting of top officials such as City Manager Trevor Fowler, Treasurer Khomotso Letsatsi, acting Chief Financial Officer Quinton Green and Chief Operations Officer Gerald Dumas.

Makhubo said the City sought to elevate service delivery to a higher plane because “it is important to us”.

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Also not negotiable were the embrace of GDS 2040 and the provision of services such as proper billing and other customer satisfaction-related challenges.

“We’ve got a solid city that will achieve its objectives. Johannesburg is by far the biggest city in the country. Even the Auditor-General seems to be tougher with us than any other municipality in South Africa because we are trendsetters,” said Makhubo.

The MMC conceded that there were some “lows and highs” in the 2011-2012 annual financial report. He said "certain things" were found by the Auditor-General. But rather than see them as negatives, the leadership must learn crucial lessons from them in order to build a solid world-class African city, Makhubo said.

In his speech, Fowler focused mainly on the way forward. “We are taking the city on new a trajectory, with emphasis on the eradication of poverty, building a growing an inclusive economy and promoting social inclusion through support of enablement and good governance,” said Fowler.

He said the city’s massive structural investment - including the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and general road construction - was beginning to yield positive results. For example, an increasing number of people were now using this new mode of transport.

Fowler said the 2010 World Cup was hosted in South Africa at the height of the global economic meltdown.

“We spent R3 billon of our own resources on the World Cup and we took a knock as a result. But there’s since been a recovery. We now have a surplus of R4,6 billion,” said Fowler.